As 2018 draws to a close, we thought we'd give a summary of our key activities over the past year:

In the spring of 2018, Louise Abbott received a joint grant from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ) and the MRC Memphremagog to make three short documentaries about three artists living in the Eastern Townships. She has nearly finished shooting all three videos and shall begin post-production in early 2019.

In the summer of 2018, Louise Abbott and Niels Jensen travelled north to Nemaska for the first screening of Cree Tourism: Creating the Career of Your Dreams, Rural Route Communication's latest documentary for COTA: 

https://vimeo.com/281174698

Louise  went on to shoot much of the footage for a documentary about the history and contemporary role of the Ayer's Cliff Fair that is scheduled for completion in late 2019.

She also completed a documentary about the history of covered bridges in Quebec titled Driving into the Past in English and Un voyage dans le passé in French.

She is now in the thick of shooting yet another documentary about the restoration of a round barn in Mansonville that dates to 1912.

Niels Jensen is serving as drone operator and lighting technician for all of these films, while Montreal cameraman Vito DeFilippo is helping out on formal interviews and editing.

On December 5, 2018, Radio Canada broadcast a report about the round barn restoration project that shows a quick shot of Louise and Niels at work:

https://vimeo.com/304857135

Niels is now planning an exhibition for Studio Georgeville about a Townships garden that he has photographed over the course of more than one year.

No shortage of creative work for Rural Route Communications! 

Nantali Indongo, the vibrant host of CBC Radio's The Bridge (broadcast on CBC Radio One in Quebec on Saturday at 5 p.m.), interviewed Louise Abbott about her life and work and the music that has inspired her.

To hear an excerpt:

https://www.facebook.com/CBCMontreal/videos/10155688752306298/

Louise Abbott on preserving cultures of rural Quebec

To hear the full interview:

http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1217151043650

Niels Jensen is now a Transport Canada-certified drone operator. Here's a photo of the Eastmain River in Eeyou Istchee (northern Quebec) that he shot in the autumn of 2017 for COTA (Cree Outfitting and Tourism Association).

If you're interested in the history of Quebec north of the 55th parallel from the perspective of an Inuk who has helped to shape that history, you should pick up Zebedee Nungak's latest book, Wrestling with Colonialism on Steroids: Quebec Inuit Fight for Their Homeland (Véhicule Press, 2017).

For Louise Abbott's review in the Montreal Review of Books, please see Wrestling with Colonialism on Steroids.